As beleaguered as the U.S. space program has been, it seems like our interest in all things beyond has never been higher. From Curiosity to Bobak Ferdowsi’s mohawk to the outpouring of support after Neil Armstrong’s death, we’re a collective space case, especially here at Wired.
Curiosity’s landing site was named for Ray Bradbury, whose visions of Mars prominently featured advanced alien civilizations. So far, no Martians have walked up to say hello, but it’s a reminder of an old question: Are we alone?
That’s the subject of Information is Beautiful‘s latest interactive infographic. (Visit the BBC Future page for the customizable version.) Based on an equation astronomer Frank Drake developed in 1961, “Are We Alone?” lets you choose values for eight parameters that help estimate the number of detectable civilizations in the universe. That’s right, Drake’s equation is about aliens advanced enough to emit signals — intentionally or otherwise — into space. (Continued below.)
Infographic Courtesy of BBC Future
Written out, the equation is dense and almost indecipherable. (It looks like this: N = R* · fp · ne · fl · fi · fc · L.) Piero Zagami and David Maccandless of Information is Beautiful made it accessible — elegant, even — by breaking up the equation, and letting you customize each value, or use predetermined estimates.
To make the equation useful, of course, we have to have some idea of what values (for how many stars are born each year, say) to plug in. Zagami and Maccandless grabbed estimates from NASA, Princeton, Cornell, and the University of California, but they also left it open to you. Think these numbers are way off? Insert your own.
You’ll likely find that the estimate of communicating civilizations in the galaxy — and the universe — is very high. That’s because the universe is so large, though possibly not quite as large as Information is Beautiful’s other infographic, a to-scale visualization of the solar system called “Space Race.”
